Comin’ Home

Breaking one of the cardinal rules of girls weekend, Mommy brought her laptop. As luck would have it, the Las Vegas airport has a great internet connection! And Mommy has a lot of time to sit here, since she’s the last of the girls to leave. Surprisingly, there were a lot of little babies in Vegas… which I think breaks some kind of other cardinal rule, like CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE IN VEGAS, especially babies. Although I missed you immensely, I would never subject you to the lights, smoke and mayhem that is Vegas. You can experience this on your own when you are much older. Much, much older.

I won’t see you until tomorrow morning since I’ll get home past your bedtime… but, your daddy tells me that you started doing some new. You are now able to go from your tummy to a seated position all on your own!! I can’t imagine how that’s going to change our world, but I’m certain  it has some kind of repercussion. I know for one we will have to lower your mattress one more notch.

I missed you soooo much and can’t wait to see you, sniff you and shower you with kisses. Plane boarding, must jet home.

Gone, Baby, Gone

Mom’s on much needed break for the next few days, but we sure miss her.

Nope, not in there….

not in the office….

not sleeping….

Damn. Come home soon.

Vegas, Baby…

So, today is the eve of Mommy’s first vacation… 3-1/2 days away from you. On the one hand, I’m excited to go to Las Vegas with my girlie friends and relax with no computers, email, phone calls, etc. I can sit and listen to my ipod, read a book or belly up the bar and toast the good life. YET, on the other hand, I’ll miss all the special moments I spend with you each day. As usual, I don’t think I will realize how deeply engrained you are in my life and my routine until I am away.

I decided to look back on the past few days and remember all the wonderful things that happened; all the things I’m going to look back on while I’m away, cry and wipe a little tear.

• On the way home from an errand, we played our favorite game of “I say ah, you say ah” the whole way home.
• The way you give me “kisses”… which really just means that you lick and suck on my chin, completely coating me in spit.
• Now that I change your diaper on the floor, you instictively flip over and start crawling away… I then get to watch your naked little butt take off across the room.
• When I come to get you from your nap, you peek up over the edge of the crib and smile. Then you bury your head in the sheets and wiggle your little butt up and down. It’s like you’re so excited to see me and start a new adventure for the next few hours.
• When you lay on your back sometimes, I drop a sock onto your face and you throw it back at me. Then you giggle with anticipation for the next sock to hit your face.
• I love to watch you eat your little puffs. Your two little fingers grab the puff and you slowly and carefully place it in your mouth… although, sometimes they stick to your hands and you sit and look at this little puff in your palm, but still act as if you’re eating something.
• The way we play catch back and forth with your little plastic balls. You sit with your legs out in front of you and I mirror you and then we toss the ball back and forth. You’re just so excited when the ball leaves your little hands, hits the floor and rolls towards me. If you had an attention span, we could do this for a long time…
• They way you automatically reach down and grab my thumb while your drinking your bottle. We sit there almost the entire time with me stroking your hand and you just squeezing my thumb in some kind of internal rhythm.
• The way you sit and smack the wood floors with the palms of your hands when you reach the edge of the carpet in the family room.
• And, the last for now, the way you sit in my lap and suck your thumb as you nod off to sleep. These are some of the most special moments of my day: you literally snuggle in, relax and cuddle… I could do that for hours.

So, little one, it is all of these things that I will look back on for the few days I will be gone. Right now, the thought of leaving you is almost unbearable. Please don’t do anything too big that I’ll miss, like walk, and take it easy on your daddy; you thought I was crazy letting you chew on the electrical cords! And, most importantly, don’t forget me.

 

List of Contraband

Here’s the list of forbidden items you got into today:

1. Dog’s Ball
2. Dog’s Bone
3. Cat Toy
4. Electrical Cords (this is a given)
5. Dog Food
6. Mommy’s Shoes
7. A Client’s Newsletter
8. The lid of my Starbuck’s Frappacino

I can proudly say that I’m making improvement, though… I was able to catch you before 4 of the 8 items actually entered your mouth.

Life As We Knew It, continued

Daddy, do remember the many weekends we went out shopping to find that particular coffee table? And the couch… we sat on millions of couches and then toiled over finding just the right fabric and throw pillows. I carefully measured and sewed the curtains and then we found the artwork online and spent several days pondering if it would all go together. Well, I think the room is really coming together, dont you?

And, I’m guessing that this is just the first of many locks that will keep me away from my favorite TV show:

 

Baby Jail

Today, we had a scheduling problem. A problem like you never schedule a conference call with a client when you don’t have the nanny that day. So, basically, you didn’t stay on the schedule we went over last night before bed, and you were awake right at the time Mommy was to be on a call.

With your newfound freedom, I couldn’t just put you down and talk… I had to break out the Pack N’ Play. You actually didn’t mind it and started screaming with joy right in the middle of Mommy’s conference call (that’s how we spell professional!). I don’t expect that you’ll love the P&P forever, but for now, we’re rolling with it!

 

Oh, and that blanket that I put in the bottom of the P&P? At one point during my call, I looked over and you had wrapped yourself up like a buritto in it! Yep. Mother of the Year! Congrats, little one, you survived one more day!!

Life As We Knew It

At one point in time, we could sit you down and you would stay within, basically, a 2-3 foot radius. Mommy could take a shower, sit you on our bed and you would either sit or lay there playing contently with your toys. Now, well… on Sunday you officially crawled for the first time! Officially meaning one hand in front of the other, at least two consecutive times. That doesn’t mean, however, you weren’t already quite mobile. You had already mastered what we call “The Soldier Crawl”. And it seemed as soon as we put you down, you were immediately drawn to either the clock on the cable box, or when the doors to the entertainment center were shut, the heat register on the floor.

Today, however, Mommy found herself saying “Oh Oh Oh, no not that”, and “No, we don’t eat electrical cords”, and “No No No, not the curtains” a lot. I’m not sure what it is, but in a room full of toys, you immediately will find any electrical cord to shove in your mouth. At one point, you just climbed yourself onto the lower shelf of the coffee table AND I WAS IN THE ROOM RIGHT NEXT TO YOU!!! No Mother of the Year awards for me. Nope. Completely not prepared for this. I even accidentally left the back door open while running after you and the cat went outside and halfway down the stairs. Mommy almost killed the cat today.

Did I mention I’m not prepared for this?

 

Ooey Gooey, Stick Icky

Now that you’re a big nine month old, you can now have finger foods. So, along with half the food in the baby aisle, Daddy picked up some Biter Biscuits. Not to be confused with Bitter Biscuits, which would really be gross. You really like the biscuits. You can suck on them and basically watch them liquify and turn to biscuit… goo. Really, that’s the only term I can come up with. Goo that gets smeared into every nook and cranny of the high chair, fabric, fingernail, hair and nostril within an 8 foot radius.

To demonstrate, this was you after a lunch of spinach & potatoes, carrots and a biter biscuit:

Good thing it warmed up outside; I just took you out back and hosed you off…

Measuring Up

On Tuesday you went to the doctor for your 9 month check-up. It was a wonderful visit because you didn’t have to have any shots!! So, as usual, they weighed and measured you and here’s your stats:

Weight: 17.7 pounds (8th percentile)
Height: 27.5 inches (25th percentile)

The doc tells us that the drop in your weight is due the fact that you’re so active (read: Jumperoo time).. which means you’ve luckily inherited your daddy’s metabolism.

One of my favorites

Including that cute little photo of your stuffy little nose, this ranks up there as one of the favs. You were studying the pattern on the blanket so intently…